Drabble series
by Gillianandersonwannabe
Summary: Will include all sorts of drabbles, including an AU, some post IWTB, and several William related familiyfics.
1. A Woman and her Fox

_**A/N: **_**So I've wanted to get back into xf fanfic for a while now and I decided that a small drabble series would be the perfect way to do that, so I asked my tumblr followers to send me prompts/requests and now I'm beginning to work my way through them. My first one came from tumblr user liver-and-chianti, they requested "Mulder as a fox like in all that gorgeous fanart". The fan art they refer to is that of other tumblr user, tumblebuggie. I highly recommend their art, it is stunning, and they do sell prints... Anyway, I've still got four or five more of these coming up, so stay tuned, I will be adding them as chapters to this. If you have a request for a drabble send me a message!**

**I hope you enjoy, and maybe drop me a review?**

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**A Woman and Her Fox**

"Ma'am? Uh-" the hostess of the restaurant, Karen according to her name tag, was feeling a little flustered, no one had ever tried to bring in pets before, let alone a fox.

"Yes?" asked the woman, as if she had no idea what was so strange.

"Look, uh, I hate to break it to you, but-"

"If you're worried about my fox", the woman interrupted, "I can assure you he's quite well behaved", she glanced down at him and flashed a quick smile. "And if you're worried about the rest of the customers, well", she made a sweeping gesture to highlight the lack of business at 3 in the afternoon.

"Yeah okay I see your point", the hostess conceded, "but we got health codes and stuff. I need this job, I'm not about to get fired because of you and your damn fox." The fox whimpered as though he knew he was being spoken of. Karen felt bad. "Maybe you could just leave him outside while you eat?"

The woman looked amused at the suggestion and gave the fox a playful nudge. "I probably should-" her fox whimpered again, louder, "but he would be lonely I suppose." She rolled her eyes.

"Sorry then", Karen said, trying to sound as sincere as possible.

The woman shrugged. "It's fine." She looked down at her fox, "come on Mulder, I'll buy you some food from the grocery store." They turned to leave, but Karen called after them.

"Wait now, what's his name?"

The woman turned and offered up a smirk, "Mulder. Fox Mulder". She and her fox strode out of the building, leaving Karen without an opportunity to remark on the strangeness.

A little while later the woman could be seen leaving a local grocery store with a deli sandwich in one hand and a bag of sunflower seeds in the other.


	2. The Lady and Spooky

_**A/N: **_**This prompt was sent to me by tumblr user scullylovesqueequeg, she requested "Mulder and Scully share food". This could take place just about anywhere from s5 onward, although their romantic relationship is implied, so, do with that what you will. Personally I like it as an IWTB era piece, but that's just because those are my favorites. Don't forget, if you think of a prompt that you want written, send it to me and I will add it to my list! Thanks for reading, don't forget to leave a review as well!**

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**The Lady and Spooky**

"So Scully, how's your pasta?" Mulder inquired, mouth half full of his own.

She swallowed. "I have to say, I really do feel like I've been magically transported to Italy."

He smirked. "Sounds like an X-File."

She smiled back at him and shook her head a little, "Everything sounds like an X-File to you Mulder." She twisted her fork around, wrapping the noodles around it. In all honesty it wasn't the best pasta she'd had, but Mulder had seemed so excited about taking her out here she didn't want to spoil it.

"So, can I have a taste of this paranormal pasta?" he asked, his smirk growing.

"Mulder what's wrong with your Ravioli?"

"Nothing, nothing!" he threw his hands up in mock surrender. "I just wanted a little taste. Maybe the stars will align and we'll do, uh,_ the thing_", he waggled his eyebrows in reference to a certain Lady and the Tramp scene.

She raised hers in response. "Now, _that_ would be an X-File."

"Let's test our luck", said Mulder. All of a sudden he was dead set on this happening. He started moving aside the flowers and candle that adorned the center of their table, making Scully chuckle to herself thinking of typical Mulder setting aside the romance. When he reached for her plate he decided to be just a little difficult. For fun.

"Mulder seriously? I don't know about you, but I'm trying to have a nice dinner right now. Can we save the shenanigans for some other time?"

"Come on Scully, just once!"

She sighed heavily, pouted, and pushed her plate to the center of the table.

"Thank you for indulging me, I know I can be quite a burden." She ignored that remark. "Forks, ready!" he said with exaggerated enthusiasm. Scully replied non verbally with exaggerated irritability. "Go!"

Mulder twirled his fork furiously while Scully let hers laze around. Mulder ended up with far too many noodles and Scully ended up with a half of one.

"Scu-lee", Mulder complained, "you weren't even trying!"

"Mulder, I doubt that it's even physically possibly first of all. I mean think about it..."


	3. One Less Day

_**A/N: **_**This is one of three prompts sent to me from tumblr user deanwincherter. The prompt was "The 2012 claendar that hangs in Mulder's room makes Scully angry. Each day that passes he marks with a big red X...each X is one less day they have together."**

**Don't forget to review! Warning, this one is more sad than my last two.**

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**One Less Day**

The games she usually plays with herself to help her fall asleep aren't working. No matter what she does, her mind keeps flashing back to that damn calendar hanging up in Mulder's unoffical office. It made her sick, Mulder marking off days with a foreboding red X. Everyday brings them closer to their last.

December 21st 2012.

Scully would never cop to it, but the thought of that day filled her with a ridiculous sense of dread. She can't help but believe as Mulder does, that the 20th will be their last day together.

She rolls over in bed to look at the blue glow on her nightstand. 12:08 AM. Officially a new day. Officially one less day. She bit her lip to keep from crying, she couldn't stand the thought of ever losing him.

Giving up on sleep altogether she eases herself out of their shared bed, careful not to wake Mulder who seemed to be sleeping peacefully. He didn't stir as she padded out of their room and into his.

Scully flicked the light switch and was temporarily blinded. Squinting, she took in the sight of the calendar. It was a simple one with mountain landscapes and inspiring quotes. This month's was "Dream Big", whether or not the pun was intended was yet to be determined. This time biting her lip wasn't enough to keep from crying as she put a big red X through the box marked 17. 'One less day, one less day', her mind kept repeating.

"Scully?" Mulder startled her, she spun around to find him leaning against the door frame. He took a couple tentative steps toward her. "What are you doing up?"

She considered him for a beat. "I couldn't sleep", she replied softly.

He took note of the red marker in her hand. She pretended not to notice.

"Scully."

No answer.

_"Scully."_

"Mulder."

He took another half step towards her so that he was right up against her. He took her hand in his. "Let's go to bed."

She shook her head and tried to blink away the tears that were welling up. "Mulder, I can't",she said forcefully.

"Come on, I'll make you some tea to help you sleep", he says, misunderstanding her.

"No Mulder, I can't... I can't stand to look at this damn calendar anymore!"

"What?" he asked, still not understanding.

"Mulder, I feel silly saying this, but as we get closer and closer to... _you know _I just can't help but think about the big what if. And if what you found all those years ago is true then our time", she paused to blink away tears. "Our time with one another is running out. And, at the risk of sounding like a five year old, I don't want it to end."

He was speechless. All he could do was pull her into an embrace while he gathered his thoughts. She finally let her tears begin to fall.

"Our time together isn't going to end Scully", he finally murmurs. "We aren't going to separate in December, or any other time for that matter. I don't know exactly what you believe anymore, but I'll tell you what, we have been through too much for even the worst, death, to ruin it."

She sniffed and looked up at him. "Do you really believe that?"

He nodded. "Whatever comes on that day, whatever happens, we are going to face it just like we've faced everything else." He kissed the top of her head. "Together."


	4. My Touchstone

**A/N: This prompt was sent in by tumblr user deanwincherter. I'm not sure how much I like how this turned out, but I've been working on it for a while so I'll let it out into the world for now. I think I'll probably return to it later though. Her promt was "Nightmare: (Right after season 9) Prompt: They weren't used to sharing the same bed on a regular basis. Each night they learn something about the other that they didn't know before: Scully hogs all the covers, Mulder snores, little things at first. But when it comes to nightmares they learn things about each other that the didn't necessarily want to know"**

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**My Touchstone**

The only thing consistent about the years right after Mulder and Scully left was each other's presence. They took great solace in the time that they shared together, but ,even 9 years later, they still had things to learn.

On their first night together in bed Scully ended up with all the covers, something he teased her about when they woke up, despite the circumstances. She'd never done it before when they'd spent the night together, but after a month 'on the run', so to speak, he found she was prone to it. So he made sure he always had an extra blanket within reach so he didn't have to disturb her or be uncomfortable.

Scully discovered that when Mulder is sleeping deeply, he snores. Loudly. Usually a light bop on the head with a pillow is enough to stir him so that he stops, but not so much that he wakes up. The first night it happened she complained to him about it over breakfast and he refused to believe her.

There were other things they had to learn though.

Nightmares at that point seemed inevitable, what, with all the suffering the duo had been through. That didn't make it any easier on either of them though.

Scully had more nightmares than Mulder, although that was probably because she slept more than him. Her breathing would quicken at first, and then her hand would instinctively fly out to her left, to find Mulder. Scully, if asked, would claim that was because she used to sleep on the left side of her bed and she was reaching for her gun on her nightstand, but she knew better, and so did Mulder.

Once he had woken her up he always held her and kissed away every single tear. Once she cried until the sun rose. He cried too then. For her, for both of them, for everything they had lost, for everything they had left behind.

Mulder's nightmares were less frequent, but in Scully's opinion they were more extreme. Unlike her he always wanted to talk about them. Talking helped him, so she listened, even though she didn't want to. Often they were about his abduction, about the horrors inflicted upon him. Hearing him talk about the light, the pain, it brought back her own memories, ones that she had fought hard not to remember.

The nightmares changed everytime though, one was never exactly like the other. They would both close their eyes wondering what sort of horrors would await them that night, but one thing kept them calm. Knowing that when they woke up the other would be there for them. Their constant.

And, together, they knew they would be okay.


	5. The Boxes in the Closet

_**A/N: **_**Hi I am still writing these, I promise! School started though so they are going to published with less frequency, but they will be published! This is another prompt from tumblr user deanwincherter, the prompt was: "Cleaning out the closet: (IWTB): Mulder (or scully) decide to clean out the closet one day and find things that have been saved from their time with the FBI from what feels like a lifetime ago." I actually had a surprising bit of trouble with this one too, so I think I'll revisit it later.**

**A couple notes, if you've read my other story, It Starts with Coffee, this is set in the same head canon so there's a little treat if you liked that. Also, a similar thing happened in a fic written by dream1n9big called The Seventh Stage. It's much more extensive than this little drabble and I think it's written much better, so I would highly recommend it, especially if you like this. Enjoy:)**

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**The Boxes in the Closet**

It started off as just another day. Scully had her usual morning case of the grumpies that not even coffee could fix, and then after a quick good bye she was off to the hospital. Mulder was, as per usual, left to his own devices. Lately he had been particularly interested in indoor gardening, but first he always made rounds around their home to see if cleaning needed to be done. Scully loved having a clean house, therefore, so did Mulder.

Today was different though because he was going to begin the intimidating task of preparing the guest bedroom for Mrs. Scully's surprise visit in less than a month. Mulder hadn't visited the room since they first moved in, and even then he just popped in. He had seen Scully putting some boxes of stuff into the closet, when he had asked her what was in them she declined to give a real answer, and he didn't push it. Today he was finally going to see what was in them, not that the thought had always nagged at him or anything.

The door gave a soft creak when he opened it. He stepped inside and found it strange how different the air in the room felt compared to the rest of their well-loved home. It wasn't quiet like their bedroom or peaceful like their living room, it was just- silent.

He found it ridiculously unnerving.

When he opened the closet door he found a small brown moving box along with a shoe box on the floor. The moving box looked as though it had been opened, although not recently, while the shoe box had an unhealthy layer of dust on it. He began with the bigger box.

The first thing he found was The Great Mutato comic book. He smiled and remembered that case. He remembered how they danced together, and he remembered the smile on her face. Despite everything, in that one moment, together, they were really, truly, happy. She was radiant, smiling with her teeth and everything.

The next thing he found was a VHS tape. "Superstars of the Superbowls." It took him a moment to remember why Scully would have it in the box, but then he remembered. He could still remember how the relief flooded in when he heard that Scully had woken up from her coma. He had no idea that she had kept it all these years.

One by one he sifted through all the memories the box contained. He found the Apollo 11 key chain that he gave her for her birthday, Queequeg's dog collar, even the photo they took while they were undercover in that gated neighborhood.

There was only one thing he couldn't place. He could not for the life of him remember where the quarter fused with the penny had come from, so he attributed it to old age.

He carefully replaced each item in the box with reverence and moved on to the next box, just a small shoebox. He blew off the dust and hesitantly opened the lid. Inside was one item. When he saw it he felt as though his heart had dropped into his feet.

A baby hat with little bunny ears. He didn't have to be told who the hat's owner had been. He was torn. He wanted so badly to hold it in his hands, to feel the softness of the material, to hold it against his heart like he would've held William, to touch it to his cheek, to smell it, even though any of his scent would've been long gone by now. On the other hand though, looking at the little hat, it looked sacred. He could tell that Scully hadn't opened this box since she had put the hat in there and it felt wrong to disturb it without Scully being there. So in the end he left it.

He closed the lid and set the box next to the bigger one.

And he set about cleaning the room for Mrs. Scully, because there were good things to come.


End file.
